End of Service, Continuation in the US

Dear friends!

Thank you for following this blog over the past 3 years. It will continue to exist, though it will no longer be updated. I hope that it can be of use to current Peace Corps applicants, or anyone traveling or living in China.

If you wish to continue following the lives of Nick and Alison, you are welcome to view our new blog by clicking here.

You are also welcome to view our old and new photos at the following links:
Site 1: June 2007 - January 2009
Site 2: January 2009 - present

See you around!

Twilight in China

Our extraction from China is in full swing -- we never thought we'd make it this far, but it has arrived! We came to China a little over 2 years ago, wanting to see the world, to help people (broad definition), and to learn a little more about ourselves. I can see now that we have fully accomplished all of those goals.

We've seen so many parts of China, from west to east, north to south. We've traveled by bus, train, plane, 3-wheeled moto-pedicab, boat, bicycle, waveboard, rickshaw, and innertube. China's a big place. We've seen ethnic majorities and minorities, the privileged and the oppressed, the drunk and the sober, the young and the old. We've seen ancient craftsmanship and modern atrocity, and vice versa. We've seen the US and the Western world through Chinese eyes.

We've helped people. We've taught English to about 500 Chinese students. We've made friends with many, and given them all a few smiles to remember (our efforts and their own worthiness). We've carried bags for people, and given them gifts. We've addressed each person as best we can, telling them that they are special, even in a country of over a billion. We've tried to break up violence and encourage critical thinking. We've told our students that we believe in their success.

We've also learned much about ourselves. How we can live inside a culture that seems to choke us and free us at the same time. How 'friendship' can be redefined (and 'marriage' for that matter). We have learned that helping others doesn't mean losing yourself, or even changing the other. We have learned that we can make it through, even when failure seems imminent. I may have even learned how to keep a blog (sporadic though it is).

We leave our teaching site on July 14th to head down to the Peace Corps office in Chengdu to outprocess. Then we go to a wedding and have dinner with a friend. After that, it's on to Italy, France, and then back to the US, where we will of course experience a world of reverse culture shock. We'll have to sift through the layers of China that have accumulated to feel at home again, in our home. And then eventually all the layers will mesh together, and we'll feel at home not just in the US or China, but in the world, in our own skins.

Thank you to all of those who have made contact with us over these 2 years; we have not taken it for granted, and we will not forget it! Thank you to all those who have sent materials for our library; the students see it as a community place, and they will continue to take ownership of it. Thank you for all the phone calls, greeting cards, visits, letters, e-mails, and other messages. They have sustained us!

We will surely blog again from the US, about the next chapter of our lives: finding employment, places to live, friends, family, and our future, whatever it might be.

At this point, I have way too many pictures to post here. Please follow the links below to our photos. Au revoir!

Site 1: June 2007 - January 2009
Site 2: January 2009 - present

Back in Business

Well, we are still here. We were blocked by the Great Firewall for awhile, then blocked by our own travels, and then blocked by busy-ness. But we are back, and ready for an update.

The last few months have been filled with great adventures and successes in teaching. Our recent travels have included places like Emei Mountain (Sichuan Province), Yangshuo (Guangxi Province), Beijing, Chengdu (multiple times), Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve, and Xi'an, our favorite weekend retreat. Neither of us was bitten by a monkey like our friend, we got to see the big city lights of Beijing, and more family members came to visit: Robb, Pat, David, and Callie! We saw the Great Wall at last. There is a saying in Chinese, attributed to Mao Zedong himself: “不到长城非好汉" It roughly translates as "He who has not visited the Great Wall is not a true man." It literally translates as "He who hasn't been to the Great wall is not a true Han." So, I guess since we have all visited it, we are true Han people now. I'm guessing Mao didn't have us crazy foreigners in mind when he wrote this ...

Our semester began mid-March, and we are counting down -- we have only about 76 days left of our service. We feel very comfortable in class, and hopefully our students are getting the most out of us at this point. We talk most about travel and such, but our lives do mostly focus on our students and their activities. We just feel as though it's old news, so we don't describe much in detail.

Last week we went to our close-of-service conference in Chengdu to get a good start on paperwork before leaving Peace Corps. It is hard to believe that we have been here nearly two years, and that we will have to start again in the US. Well, not really start again, but re-adjust to the life we once knew. Initially, we will have to do things like drive to the store, wonder why people aren't staring at us, realize that everyone speaks English, and that we can form a line somewhere and not be pushed back. It will be truly strange.

Anyone have any hints on how we can re-acclimate to American culture? Please post below! I am eager to hear ideas!


Also, we now have two websites where you can find our photos:
Site 1: June 2007 - January 2009
Site 2: January 2009 - present

Holiday Time

We haven't been able to post for awhile due to internet restrictions. So what's been going on?

Well, we're deep into our third semester here, with final exams on the horizon for the end of the month. After that, we're headed to our annual conference, and then a very long holiday break. The end of the break should be particularly interesting, with our families coming!

To quick things I wanted to mention:
A friend of ours has recently put on a production of the Odyssey at her school. Click here to see the photos. We thought it was amazing!

Second, the new president-elect has said that he wants to double the size of the Peace Corps. We're all for that, but we think that China should be a unique entity within that :) Read about it here.

Hope you all are well! Our pictures page and videos page have been updated.
pictures
videos

Year 2: Ready, Steady, Go

This school year has started off with a buzz of activity, and then a nice week-long holiday. Our library is open for business, and we have a a new snazzy system for actually keeping track of the books checked out. A big thank-you to all who have donated materials. We will have various publicity events this term to get more students into the library.






We spent our holiday week by traveling pretty far away along the old Silk Road of China over to Xinjiang Autonomous Region (province). Think desert, camels, mountains, Islam, Arabic script, mutton, and people with lighter hair and eyes. We took a train to Urumqi, but only stayed one night before heading out to the city of Turpan, an ancient capital with a very large and well-preserved city of ruins. From C-14 dating, the ruins are said to have 1600 years of history. And because they are in an arid climate where erosion happens only because of wind, many of the walls are still standing, and archaeologists have put together an excellent idea of the buildings, the areas, the way of life, etc. These are the Jiaohe (jau-huh) Ruins. Turpan is a small city, so we rented bikes and rode the 10 km out to the ruins, passing wonderful courtyard homes, herds of goats and sheep, countless donkey cards which Nick pulled up next to and said hello in his newly acquired Uighur tongue, and fields of cotton and grapes.

This picture is the way that little stuffed breads are cooked - stuck to the side of a metal cylindrical stove with the heating element at the bottom. The breads are stuffed with mutton, onions, and spices.









After another night back in Urumqi, we headed to Tianchi Lake (or Heavenly Peak Lake). We hiked around it after a crappy morning spent puttering around on a tourist bus, and stayed the night in a serene Kazak yurt. The next morning we hiked around the lake, dodged cows, and inhaled the fresh air. While hiking down, Nick and I had the idea to make a "Flat Sarah." There is a popular school project called "Flat Stanley" where a traveler will take a drawing of a character (Stanley) in his suitcase and take pictures of Stanley with various landmarks or exciting things behind him. Stanley travels the world, then reports back to the student, who can learn about those places. So, we were thinking that with Sarah Palin needing to beef up her travel experience, we could make a "Flat Sarah" and take pictures of her wherever we went, thereby bestowing a plethora of new travel experience (we might even call it "foreign policy experience"). What do you think?

This is a stuffed camel, begging for some affection, at the base of the mountain. Check out the rest of our pictures at this link. Happy Halloween!